Director of Strategy and Transformation

Owner of the I+S Transformation Agenda

Business: Ingredients + Specialties (I+S) * Reports to: SVP - Innovation, Growth & Strategy * Location: The Woodlands, TX / Hybrid * Experience: 10+ years

About the Role:

The Director, Strategy & Transformation owns the transformation agenda for the Ingredients + Specialties business - the portfolio of forward-looking initiatives that fundamentally change the trajectory of I+S. This is the "decide what changes next" seat: it identifies where the business must move, builds the business cases behind the moves, and mobilizes the cross-functional teams that deliver them. It does not run the current commercial engine, sell, set price, or own the data platform. Its distinctive contribution is converting strategy into transformation - Bend the Curve, Accelerate, portfolio, private label, GTM evolution, and rebrand/spin theses - with rigor, ROI discipline, and value-creation-plan traceability.

The role is the deliberate counterpart to Revenue Operations and Data & AI. RevOps owns the operating system that runs the current business. Data & AI owns the intelligence layer that informs it. Strategy & Transformation owns the change agenda that redefines it. Reporting to the SVP - Innovation, Growth & Strategy, the role partners with Apollo, the SVP Sales, BU SVPs, Product Management, Marketing, RevOps, Data & AI, Pricing, Finance, and the enterprise PMO.

What This Role Owns:

1. Transformation Portfolio & Bend the Curve / Accelerate Programs

• Own the I+S transformation portfolio - Bend the Curve, Accelerate, and the next wave of enterprise change programs - as one governed portfolio tied to the value-creation plan.
• Own the initiative pipeline - identification, scoping, prioritization, sequencing, and sunset - so investment follows value, not noise.
• Anchor every initiative to the four I+S growth objectives - reduce churn, improve win rates, optimize margin, improve customer experience - and to the Apollo VCP.

2. Growth Strategy & Commercial Transformation Agenda

• Set the mid- to long-term growth agenda across the I+S portfolio - GTM evolution, market expansion, channel mix, customer segmentation, cross-sell/upsell, and supplier partnership expansion.
• Own the portfolio and private-label strategy work - from thesis to business case to launch plan - in partnership with Product Management and the BU SVPs.
• Own the rebrand/spin and specialty-positioning thesis - the forward-looking work that redefines what I+S is and how it is valued.

3. Business Case Discipline & ROI Governance

• Own the business-case standard for commercial and enterprise investments - the shared template, hurdle rates, sensitivity discipline, and stage-gate governance.
• Build and pressure-test business cases for growth and transformation initiatives - value accelerators, investment requirements, management plans, and where outcomes hit the I+S P&L.
• Own ROI tracking and value realization - hypothesis to budget to actuals - so every dollar committed is traced through to EBITDA.

4. PMO Orchestration & Program Governance

• Dotted-line ownership of the PMO resources supporting the division - the delivery muscle behind the transformation portfolio.
• Run the Transformation SteerCo - cadence, agendas, decisions, escalations, and stage-gate reviews.
• Facilitate requirements gathering, vendor selection, and proposal structuring with external partners (consultants, technology vendors, analytics providers).
• Oversee build and activation phases, often coordinating multiple consulting firms, contractors, and internal teams simultaneously.

5. Strategic Choices, Frameworks & Board-Ready Analysis

• Develop enterprise-grade strategic frameworks - customer and product profitability, whitespace and wallet share, cost-to-serve, and portfolio choices - that inform resource allocation and prioritization.
• Prepare Apollo, Board, and CEO-level materials - decision memos, thought pieces, and value-creation narratives - that frame the strategic choices in front of the business.
• Own the "next-wave" thinking - where I+S must be in 3, 5, and 7 years, and the transformation moves required to get there.

6. Change Management & Adoption Design

• Own change management design for transformation initiatives - communications, training design, stakeholder alignment, and adoption instrumentation - working alongside business/functional owners in their execution.
• Partner with RevOps on the handoff from transformation to run - where a change becomes a standing part of how the business operates.
• Drive ownership, accountability, and a sense of urgency across all initiatives and stakeholders.

From Diagnosis to Delivery: The Transformation Engine:

The six areas above are the capabilities; this role's distinctive job is to convert diagnosis into delivery - the engine that turns strategy into transformation and transformation into P&L impact.

• Portfolio owner, not order-taker. Owns the transformation portfolio and the ROI governance behind it - decides where I+S invests to change, and where it does not.
• Redefines, does not run. Not a line or operational manager and not responsible for running the business - responsible for redefining where the business should go and driving the transformation to get there.
• Commissioner, not operator. Strategy commissions the change; RevOps operationalizes it; Data & AI supplies the evidence and models. A clean handoff, no overlap.
• Evidence-led. Every initiative carries a business case, a value hypothesis, and a tracked outcome into the VCP.
• Apollo-fluent. Speaks the language of exit value, EBITDA quality, and multiple expansion; every choice ties to the value-creation plan.
• Boundary with the enterprise PMO. Owns the I+S transformation portfolio and its PMO orchestration; the enterprise PMO owns cross-divisional program standards and shared delivery infrastructure.

Building Transformation Capability:

Transformation only sticks when the organization can absorb and sustain it. This role closes that gap through clarity, discipline, and support for functional leaders - not by owning execution.

• Coach the sponsor. Supply BU SVPs and functional leaders with the frameworks, business cases, and playbooks that make them effective owners of change.
• Discipline over ceremony. Stage gates, decision memos, and ROI tracking that drive decisions - not project theater.
• Adoption is the measure, not launch. Success is value realized in the P&L and change embedded in how the business runs - never "initiatives launched."
• Change management as a standing capability. Communications, training design, and post-launch tuning built for a continuous transformation agenda, not one-off rollouts.

Team & Indicative Direct Reports:

Leads a small, senior transformation team - strategy and business-case analysts, a transformation PMO lead, and a change-management lead - with dotted-line orchestration of the division-supporting PMO resources. Team shape evolves with the transformation portfolio; the seat is scoped to lead a division-wide change agenda, not a single-program team.

Success Measures - First 12-18 Months:

• Portfolio in place - one governed I+S transformation portfolio with clear priorities, sequencing, and stage-gate governance.
• Bend the Curve delivered - measurable EBITDA and net-churn impact against baseline, traceable to specific initiatives.
• Business cases that hold - hypotheses converted to budget and P&L outcomes with disciplined variance tracking.
• Apollo confidence - board-ready decision memos, VCP updates, and value narratives that raise credibility with the sponsor.
• Rebrand/spin thesis progressed - a defensible specialty-positioning thesis in front of the leadership team and Apollo.
• Adoption and stickiness - transformation outputs embedded in how the business runs, not one-off launches.
• Boundaries holding - no role confusion with RevOps, Data & AI, Pricing, or Sales.

Qualifications & Experience:

• Bachelor's degree required; advanced degree (MBA, Economics, Operations Research, Statistics, Data Science, or related) strongly preferred.
• 3-5 years in management consulting, corporate strategy, commercial excellence, or enterprise transformation, including 3+ years leading teams.
• Demonstrated track record leading growth and transformation workstreams - pricing, GTM, segmentation, portfolio, private label, or revenue optimization.
• Experience leading multiple large-scale ($1M+) initiatives, preferably spanning both growth and cost/operational programs.
• Experience managing external advisors - management consultants, technology vendors, and analytics partners.
• Private-equity portfolio-company or PE-backed environment experience strongly preferred; Apollo or comparable sponsor exposure a plus.
• Specialty chemicals distribution, ingredients, food & nutrition, personal care, or B2B distribution industry experience a plus but not required.

Skills & Competencies:

• Strategic acumen - sets a defensible transformation agenda tied to enterprise value and multiple expansion.
• Commercial acumen - translates market and customer data into growth strategies with clear P&L impact.
• Financial acumen - translates strategy into FP&A, budget, and valuation models the CFO and Apollo trust.
• Business-case discipline - hypothesis-driven, evidence-led, stage-gated, and tracked to outcome.
• Program leadership - structured orchestration of complex, cross-functional initiatives with multiple sponsors and dependencies.
• Change management - sets targets, gains buy-in, establishes milestones, and holds sponsors accountable for results.
• Stakeholder influence - drives outcomes through frameworks, evidence, and consensus rather than formal authority.
• Communication - exceptional written and verbal skills; board-ready presentation, memo, and decision-document quality.
• Technology fluency - comfort with enterprise systems, analytics platforms, and AI/ML-enabled workflows.
• Adaptability - flexes across workstreams and operates autonomously in a fast-paced, PE-backed environment.
• Boundary-spanning influence - partners with Sales, RevOps, Pricing, Data & AI, Product, and Marketing without owning them.